• (function() { (function(){function b(g){this.t={};this.tick=function(h,m,f){var n=void 0!=f?f:(new Date).getTime();this.t[h]=[n,m];if(void 0==f)try{window.console.timeStamp("CSI/"+h)}catch(q){}};this.getStartTickTime=function(){return this.t.start[0]};this.tick("start",null,g)}var a;if(window.performance)var e=(a=window.performance.timing)&&a.responseStart;var p=0=c&&(window.jstiming.srt=e-c)}if(a){var d=window.jstiming.load; 0=c&&(d.tick("_wtsrt",void 0,c),d.tick("wtsrt_","_wtsrt",e),d.tick("tbsd_","wtsrt_"))}try{a=null,window.chrome&&window.chrome.csi&&(a=Math.floor(window.chrome.csi().pageT),d&&0=b&&window.jstiming.load.tick("aft")};var k=!1;function l(){k||(k=!0,window.jstiming.load.tick("firstScrollTime"))}window.addEventListener?window.addEventListener("scroll",l,!1):window.attachEvent("onscroll",l); })();

    Monday, April 24, 2006

    Our exchange with Portugal

    Hi all,

    Just in case you have a look during our holidays, Fernanda, an English teacher from Setúbal (Portugal), has sent me a link to her podcasting site, Let's try podcasting, where her students ask you questions both in writing and with their own recorded voices. The topic is multiculturalism. Listen to them and also listen to some of the answers by other people, including English teachers Bee from Brazil and Graham from Barcelona. Graham has also answered by video.

    I've put a permanent link to Let's try podcasting in our audio blog Sydney's People Podcast. That way you will find it quickly whenever you want to talk to our friends from Portugal. It is the first link on the right side bar.

    Teresa Almeida d'Eça, another English teacher from Portugal, left us a message in our podomatic. My 2004 students wrote a quiz about Australia for her students. Visit her class blog, Have Fun with English 2, also linked in our Sydney's People Podcast (second link). They have songs, videos, and lots of games and activities. Leave her students a message and don't forget to tell them who you are and where you live and come from. They are in 5th form and will get a thrill if you talk to them.

    If you want, you can subscribe to podomatic at home. It is very easy and it is more connvinient to write/record your answers directly there. At TAFE it's a bit hard. I"ll have to ask the IT staff to do it for us. Start preparing your answers. We'll do it the first week back. I've sent a recorded message from our podomatic (link on the right side bar of Sydney's People Podcast), Let's talk. You can also listen to it in Fernanda's class podomatic, in the entry called Multiculturalism.

    Labels: , , , , ,

    Monday, April 17, 2006

    The Archibald Prize & Woolloomooloo

    IMGP3446
    I hope you enjoyed our day at the Art Gallery of NSW and Wooloomooloo. You experienced one of Sydney's most popular spots: Harry's Cafe De Wheels, famous for its authentic pies. Chika was telling us that she always sees accidents there at night. Read this article from the Daily Telegraph, posted by the Pedestrian Council of Australia, where they say that site is "an accident waiting to happen".

    How are you going with your opinion text about the portraits we saw?

    I've added some pictures on both flickr (picture above) and frapper (see below). You can click on the pictures and see the rest. I also added the pictures of the new students, Chris, Gloria and Nancy, and you listen to Chika, Gloria and Chris's introductions in Who are we?

    Have a fantastic break and I'll see you soon!


    Labels: , , , , ,